Users of computing devices often need to move or copy information from one software context to another. Text is a simple example of the type of transferred information, although modern computing systems allow the transfer of several types of complex objects, including images, entire database records, and calendar entries, between applications. Sometimes the destination of the transferred information is in a different location within an application, e.g., when copying text from one word processor document to another. Other times the destination is in a different application, e.g., when copying information from a word processor document to a spreadsheet document.
The current, widely used mechanism for implementing information transfers is the clipboard. The clipboard is a temporary storage buffer for storing various types of data, for example, text, graphics, sound, and video. The various application programs on a computing device share the clipboard, that is, data cut or copied to the clipboard from one application program can be copied (i.e., pasted) into another application program from the clipboard.
Use of the clipboard mechanism encounters certain disadvantages. For one, the user must initiate the transfer, i.e., highlight the information to be transferred, perform a copy operation, switch to the destination location, and perform a paste operation. Further, the user often desires the transfer after leaving the source context and switching to the destination context, and only then realizes the importance of making the transfer. Consequently, the user needs to return to the source context to perform the copy operation, only to return once more to the destination context with the copied information in order to effect the paste operation. Moreover, although some clipboard implementations support copying and maintaining multiple objects (i.e., candidates for transfer by way of pasting), the user still needs to select and copy objects one at a time. Thus, there is a need for system and method for retrieving information that can avoid the inconvenience and inefficiency of the present practice described above.